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LETHBRIDGE — The University of Lethbridge’s faculty association is speaking out against the suspension of a professor whose online comments about the Holocaust and Israel have angered Jewish groups. Association president Andrea Amelinckx says the move violates provincial law and contravenes the contract between faculty and the university. She says the contract sets out a […]

Calgary police are supporting calls for a new law that would force civilians to hand over electronic passwords to investigators with a judge’s permission. Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin was among those at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police who voted Tuesday to ask for legal means to obtain such digital evidence, saying it […]

An Alberta judge has upheld a human rights decision that found a private school discriminated against two Muslim students by not allowing them to pray. The Alberta Human Rights Commission tribunal found in 2015 that Webber Academy in Calgary unlawfully discriminated against the students and fined the school $26,000. The boys, who were in Grades […]

As our city becomes more multicultural and diverse — welcoming over 2,100 refugees alone this past year — thought-provoking forums examining human rights and freedom of expression become more relevant than ever. While many Calgarians still equate GlobalFest with its annual fireworks extravaganza, the event has for 10 years also presented critical discussion panels analyzing […]

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper embarks on his visit to China, a Calgary couple is urging him to help free their daughter who has been imprisoned in the Asian country since March. Yinghua Chen, 40, is being held in a Chinese prison for practising the Falun Gong religious movement, according to her mother Jinling Huang, who believes her daughter’s life is in danger.

A Red Deer man has been charged with human smuggling after border officers found a female passenger hidden inside his vehicle at the Carway crossing in southern Alberta last year. The Canada Border Services Agency said its officers made the discovery Oct. 26, 2013 as the man entered the country at the Carway border crossing. The woman had been previously refused entry into Canada, CBSA said.

Calgary’s Ukrainian community reflected on a dark chapter of Canadian history Friday with the unveiling of three plaques to commemorate the internment of Ukrainian immigrants during the First World War. The plaques, which depict images of internees with the caption “Recalling Canada’s First National Internment Operations,” are being unveiled at Eastern European cultural hubs across Canada as part of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation’s CTO (“one hundred) project. There are 100 of them in honour of the 100th anniversary of the War Measures Act.

For patients who have issues with private clinics, such as Calgary’s Regional Fertility Program, there are few options for recourse. The clinic has faced public scrutiny since the Herald reported that it was refusing to provide patients with sperm from donors of a different ethnicity, a policy the clinic now claims has been defunct for a year.

Drastic proposed changes to seniors transit fares are likely off the table for the time being, following a lengthy debate in front of the city’s transportation committee. Dozens of seniors and anti-poverty activists braved the four-hour meeting on Friday to speak out against Calgary Transit’s proposal for a revised fare strategy that would have seen a deeply discounted $95 annual pass for regular-income seniors phased out and a $15 a year annual pass for low-income seniors restricted to off-peak times. Those over 65 and already enrolled in the programs as of next July would have been grandfathered in.

As rain pounded down in Olympic Plaza on a grey Thursday morning, Ric McIver stepped into a crowd of reporters to stop his Tory leadership campaign from sliding into his own “lake of fire.” A little more than two years ago, controversial comments from a pair of Wildrose candidates — including a suggestion that gays would be punished for eternity in a lake of fire — helped sink the party’s chance of winning the provincial election against the PC dynasty.

Alberta’s health minister says he has little faith the federal government will reverse two-year-old cuts to refugee health funding, so the province is now looking at ways it can fill the gaps in patient care. “The issue is that these people need access to these services, whether they’re refugees or permanent residents. The question on the table is, who is going to pay for those services,” said Fred Horne.

Tory leadership candidates Ric McIver and Jim Prentice say they will defend a controversial section of Alberta’s Human Rights Act, but Thomas Lukaszuk said it’s time for a “robust discussion” over a provision that gives parents the right to pull children out of class if sexuality, sexual orientation or religion are on the agenda. McIver brought up the issue at a Progressive Conservative leadership forum Thursday evening, saying that if he became premier he would battle for section 11.1 against groups trying to repeal the education clause.

It doesn’t take long for Ezra Levant’s penchant for rapid-fire name-calling to shine through in an interview. To be fair, it’s not as if it comes out of the blue. The Calgary-raised lawyer, right-wing pundit, bestselling author and host of The Source on Sun News Network is being asked about what is clearly one of his pet peeves: high-profile celebrities who are opposed to fracking, the controversial mining process that is the focus of Levant’s newest book, Groundswell: The Case for Fracking (260 pages, $29.95, McClelland and Stewart). Specifically, it’s a question about power. When going up against massive multinational corporations such as Halliburton, for instance, how much sway does a celebrity really have?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper could narrow the gulf of mistrust with aboriginal peoples by blocking major resource projects including two proposed pipeline megaprojects to the B.C. coast — unless First Nations consent to construction, the United Nations said Monday.

Urine tests for marijuana or cocaine abuse would become mandatory for new city bus drivers, water treatment plant workers and other heavy machinery operators under a policy top city hall officials will debate this week, the Herald has learned. The city’s general managers last year approved a plan in principle to launch pre-employment drug testing starting in 2015 for workers in what the city considers “safety sensitive” jobs.

VATICAN CITY - Members of Pope Francis' sexual abuse advisory board said Saturday they will develop "clear and effective" protocols to hold bishops and other church authorities accountable if they fail to report suspected abuse or protect children from pedophile priests.

The news that longtime bachelor George Clooney was engaged to a human-rights lawyer has surprised more than a few celebrity watchers. The Oscar-winning actor has torn through a bevy of beautiful women but none was ever Mrs. Right — until now. Postmedia’s Brad Hunter explains how Amal Alamuddin captured Clooney’s heart:

Tim Hortons has ended its relationship with a franchisee in Fernie and Blairmore, Alta. who was the target of an Employment Standards Branch investigation after a temporary foreign worker from the Philippines claimed he was denied overtime pay for years. In an emailed statement, Tim Horton’s spokeswoman Olga Petrycki said the company has “terminated our relationship with the Blairmore, Alberta/Fernie B.C. franchisee for failing to comply with Employment Standards requirements, a matter Tim Hortons takes very seriously.”

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